This adage has been circulating around the market for decades, either formal or informal. It speaks to the value of working for quality so that a product can sell itself without any or much advertisement. We can see our mainstream media, social media, notice boards, and billboards … filled with advertisements for a range of commercial items, for which millions have been paid, only to win the hearts of consumers and sell in the market.
At times, experts in the field also claim that in some items, more than half of the money that consumers pay goes to cover the advice cost. But a normal person can inquire why companies and marketers struggle so hard to sell their products when they can add the quality and reliability of their products and sell the item without all these.
Indeed, this phenomenon has been witnessed in the export products of some countries that have paid a lot of price to ensure quality so that they can outshine the export market. Some companies from other countries have gone to the extent of borrowing the names of these countries (illegally, of course) as they know that their products can win a good market.
This shows that product quality can become a national system that can support the overall performance of the economy in general and the export market in particular. The country’s competitiveness in the global market comes through, among other things, working out a sustainable, traceable and reliable regime of quality.
Recently Ethiopia has also inaugurated a center, Village of Quality, which is dedicated to ensuring quality of products. It is a smart move by the government to boost the country’s overall gain from its agricultural and industrial products through the export market.
Ethiopia is undergoing a challenging terrain of economic development as it has to contend with the impacts of decades of crisis. In this regard, the government has been taking various interventions to address the wallowing economy and build a strong, prosperous one. The government can bail out the country from the pressure of the economy by raising the country’s gain from its export items.
To ensure a long-term successful economy the country needs to duly increase its production and productivity in all sectors like agriculture, manufacturing services …etc. The country has a good potential to succeed in the export market as it has many agricultural product items like coffee, oilseeds, grains, pulses, tea, spices … etc. It also enjoys an abundant wealth of livestock, that are in good demand both locally and in the export market.
As compared to the potential of the country for export as well as compared with other countries of equal stature, Ethiopia is not earning the due amount of benefit from the export market. The reasons for this could be both the short supply of its items to the export market as well as the poor quality of its products which compromise the revenue that it could have garnered.
In addition to raising the volume of the export items, it is also important to make sure that the country’s exported items receive the price that they deserve. To make this true it is mandatory to produce the export items with the best possible quality that can compete in the market.
Recently too the country has been working towards exporting and modernizing its manufacturing industries that mainly specialize in the textile, garment chemical, and agro-processing industries among others. Yet a bottom line issue in revamping all the economy sectors and specially harnessing the export market is ensuring quality and standards.
The experiences of all the countries that have made it in the export sector show their past hard work in ensuring quality.
Maintaining quality does more than half of the job required to succeed in export. Without too much effort to advertise or do other promotions, the products would manage to sell in any market.
Those in need of the items would sniff these items and come in search of marketable products. Effective work in ensuring quality can also change the image of the country and put in place a system of quality that can be trusted by all who have come across any one of the quality items in the country.
Indeed paying sacrifice for quality is worth all the investment on it as it pays back in many folds. Therefore the government of Ethiopia should uphold the ongoing efforts of installing a strong system of ensuring quality and standards for the agricultural, and industrial products and services of the country.
BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2024
